Solsbury Hill: Three lessons from the Hilltop

Mythic-poetic interpretation of the song "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel. A three-lesson take on why so many people universally find the song deeply meaningful.

Lesson 1: Willing exposure to the Unknown opens a doorway to presence.

Lesson 2: Humility is key as our best works are beyond ourselves. 

Lesson 3: Leaving for an environment where curiosity finds a home

Lesson 1: Willing exposure to the Unknown opens a doorway to presence.

Gabriel, like all poets, is among the last people who still speak the old language of mythic geography.

Before fast modes of travel and telecommunications, distance, time, and the unknown were intertwined concepts.

For ancient people, if something was far away, it was simultaneously in the future and beyond one's knowledge.

What is far away is the realm of potential dangers and opportunities.

”Climbing up on Solsbury Hill; I could see the city light...”

Climbing up Solsbury Hill, the Traveler makes a voluntary journey to the boundary between the familiar and the Unknown; a hill at the threshold of urban and wilderness.

The transition is emphasized by the descent of night. The path beyond the hill is then shrouded in the mystery of darkness.

In mythic geography, a high place has significance, for from the top of a hill one may see into the future, see beyond what is known.

This border between the familiar and the Unknown is the mysterious dwelling place of Life.

”Wind was blowing, time stood still...”

What happens next to the Traveler is of central importance.

Encountering the Unknown, getting lost, silences the thinking mind.

When the veil of the thinking mind, all the plans and deliberations, drops away even for a moment, the stopping but living experience of presence rushes forth, attention is in sensory perceptions.

In the experience of presence, we step into the Unknown. We are free.

Lesson 2: Humility is key as our best works are beyond ourselves.

“Eagle flew out of the night...”

For those who speaks the language of mythic geography, it is clear that the Eagle is the messenger of the Unknown. It flies out of the darkness, from beyond knowledge and time.

In this story, the Eagle is the first of three personifications of the Unknown, an ancient practice poets still use today.

“He was something to observe; Came in close, I heard a voice...”

The personified Unknown represents to us something beyond our own control and understanding.

It is a cause we do not understand; an effect we did not predict.

Therefore, the voice that wells up from depths of one’s intuition takes the form of the Eagle, Illusion spin her net, and Liberty she pirouette.

“Had to listen, had no choice; I did not believe the information; Just had to trust imagination...”

The secret of personifying the Unknown is that it strengthens in us the virtues required for encountering the Unknown, such as humility and the willingness to listen.

Even today, a mountain climber's relationship to a dangerous mountain, a businessman’s relationship to the market, or a mechanic’s relationship to a complex old machine may be deepened by personification.

For an astronaut, Mars is not a planet. Mars is a god.

When the mythic Eagle addresses the traveler, as the old and experienced once addressed the younger, it emphasizes the virtue of humility and surrender.

Therefore, as the Traveler steps from the familiar into the Unknown, he pricks up his ears.

“To keep in silence I resigned; My friends would think I was a nut. Turning water into wine…”

Humility leads to listening, and when we listen, we may be fortunate and receive the gifts that intuition tells us about.

True creativity springs from listening to what emerges as insights.

That is why our best works are greater than ourselves.

We can only bewilderedly tell of their origin, without taking credit for the original spark.

Lesson 3: Leaving for an environment where curiosity finds a home

“When illusion spin her net; I'm never where I want to be. And liberty She pirouette; When I think that I am free...”

When something changes, old thoughts and the self-image engage in an internal struggle with the new understanding.

The thinking mind wants to draw a map and set goals; to prefer one thing over another.

The mind wants to take credit for freedom, to control it. But freedom is not a property of the ego.

"Watched by empty silhouettes; Who close their eyes but still can see; No one taught them etiquette…”

The known environment predictably evokes old reactions, both in you and in others.

A transformed person with a newfound creative impulse can trigger an immune response in the environment.

However, it is the same space of presence that enables creativity to arise, that lessens the machinery’s power.

To witness from the freeing emptiness the judgmental characters seen here and there, and in the mirror as well.

“I will show another me…”

Now the traveler knows that things can be different.

The people around you can lift you up, so as you let them grow as their nature dictates.

Culture of curiosity embraces the Unknown, the attitude of “I don’t know, but let’s find out”. It welcomes mistakes and errors.

But without the fundamental intuitive sense of the Unknown, the culture of curiosity is hard to create.

The Traveler needs to climb the mountain to reach home.

“"Hey", I said, "you can keep my things, they've come to take me home"...”

What is this home the poet writes about?

From one perspective, in the language of mythic geography, home is a safe place from which we make journeys into the Unknown. Home defines the Unknown just as the Unknown defines home.

But home is also a state of psychological safety, a place of curiosity and presence where we are allowed to be more, to be more creative.

Paradoxically, returning home is a journey, a path toward something new. It is finding a friend, team, or work community with whom great things become possible.

So, let your joy and expansiveness guide you.

When your heart goes boom, boom, boom, have the courage to follow it. It’s the drumbeat of Life itself.

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This text was inspired, of course, by Peter Gabriel and you can detect the influence of the works of Francis Heylighen, Joseph Campbell and the teaching of the many teachers of mindfulness, zen and nondualism.